Operations Management: Sustainability and Supply Chain Management, Twelfth Edition

Corporate Social Responsibility¹

1. LO S5.1 Describe corporate social responsibility

Managers must consider how the products and services they provide affect both people and the environment. Certainly, firms must provide products and services that are innovative and attractive to buyers. But today’s technologies allow consumers, communities, public interest groups, and regulators to be well informed about all aspects of an organization’s performance. As a result, stakeholders can have strong views about firms that fail to respect the environment or that engage in unethical conduct. Firms need to consider all the implications of a product—from design to disposal.

Many companies now realize that “doing what’s right” and doing it properly can ...